It’s definitely tricky. I love the online community, and the near-instant gratification is nice. Anytime I try to write essays or fiction for other publications, or for my own enjoyment, I feel lonely because I’m not getting the immediate comments, claps, and feedback that I get when I publish on Medium. So I keep coming back. But I’ve spent so much chasing the external praise that I’ve lost sight of the entire reason that I started writing in the first place. I need to figure out my “why” so that the work doesn’t feel as much of a grind.